Senior Fellow and Founding Director, Center on Food Security and the Environment

Cary Fowler

Global Crop Biodiversity Trust

Orphan (or minor) crops are those crops which are typically not traded internationally but which can play an important role in regional food security. For various reasons, many of these crops have received little attention from crop breeders or other research institutions wishing to improve their productivity. This project produced an earlier paper on the role of orphan crops in regional food security, with implications for national and international breeding efforts. The next stage in the project will study the effects of future climate change on orphan crops and plant genetic resources, with the dual goals of both guiding future efforts at conservation of plant genetic diversity and painting a clearer picture of the effects of climate change on food security.